AUSTIN, Texas -- The 44 consecutive days of rain in Texas have claimed 13 lives so far, state officials said Friday.

Another five people were missing, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

The rain, which has stretched from southern to northern Texas, has destroyed close to 1,000 homes.

"It's unprecedented in the scope of the size (of the area affected) and the time we've been under this," Division of Emergency Management Chief Jack Colley told the Express-News.

Usually in the summer, "We're fighting wildfires. We're not fighting floods," Colley said.

Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw called the rain a "sustained threat," the Dallas Morning News reported. "A half-inch (of rain) is no longer a half-inch. A half-inch is now 9 inches in terms of impact on a community."

While some communities have begun recovery efforts, others are in "imminent threat of flooding," McCraw told the Morning News.

Forecasters predicted the weather system would leave Texas Saturday or Sunday.